Fight breaks out after The Game

A late-night altercation at the corner of York and Elm streets between Yale students and non-University affiliates following the Harvard-Yale game two weeks ago resulted in the handcuffing of at least one non-University affiliate at the scene.

Between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 18, a fight broke out between three Yale upperclassmen and roughly 10 unidentified individuals, eyewitnesses said. Two of the Yale students were sent to the hospital with minor injuries. The exact identity of the non-affiliates — who eyewitnesses described as tall, black males with muscular builds — has not been confirmed by law-enforcement officials.

Adam Trettel

Early Sunday morning, three Yale students and about 10 unidentified individuals got into a fight at York and Elm streets.

Despite the handcuffing, eyewitnesses said they did not know whether any of the involved parties were taken into custody.

New Haven Police Department spokesman Joe Avery was not able to confirm the details of the fight. Information about police involvement at the scene was not immediately available in the NHPD’s police logs because the fight was not a major incident, Avery said.

A Yale student involved in the fight did not respond to voice messages left on his phone for comment Tuesday night.

Because the altercation occurred shortly after Toad’s Place closed at 2 a.m., dozens of students witnessed either the fight or the aftermath. Eyewitnesses said the Yale students were vastly outnumbered in the fight.

“As I approached the corner, there was one guy in the middle of the street getting kicked by more than one person,” said Sam Cartmell ’10, who was walking down Elm Street away from Ivy Noodle when he saw the commotion. “There was somebody on the sidewalk, too, and he had a few guys on him.”

After the fight ended, the non-affiliates got into two separate cars parked on York Street near Trumbull College, witnesses said. As police sirens approached, one car fled the scene. Anna Pitoniak ’10, who was walking on York Street at the time, said she saw a car “screech down the street going toward Tower Parkway.”

Pitoniak is a copy editor for the News.

As the other vehicle, a black SUV, tried to pull out, an NHPD squad car turned onto York Street and sped up to block its path. NHPD officers asked the people in the black SUV to exit the car and questioned them on York Street.

The officers handcuffed at least one of the approximately five occupants. Sharifa Love ’09 said she saw officers place one of the occupants in the police car, but other witnesses were unable to confirm that.

Traffic on York Street north of Elm Street was temporarily blocked by NHPD squad cars and ambulances.

The Yale students involved were also questioned by police officers. Witnesses said none of the students was handcuffed, and police officers walked two of them into an ambulance.

Cartmell said the injuries that Yale students received from the fight were limited to scratches, cuts and bruises. One student was bleeding heavily from the face, Cartmell said.

“The injuries didn’t look serious enough to warrant multiple ambulances,” Love, who saw the Yale students after the fight, said. “But there were a few bloody faces.”

A student close to the Yale students in the fight — who asked to remain anonymous — said two of the three students involved were taken to the hospital for treatment. He said the injuries were minor.

Dhiraj Thata, an assistant manager at Au Bon Pain, said there was no damage done his restaurant’s building on the night of the fight. Eyewitnesses said distribution bins for the News and the Yale Herald outside Au Bon Pain were knocked over.

University Spokesman Tom Conroy did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Comments

Anonymous

What the hell is a "non-University affiliate"?Is that some type of PC speak? If so, please translate for the rest of us.

Anonymous

911 medical calls in New Haven frequently get a response from both the fire department as first responders and from AMR, the private ambulance company which actually transports the patient(s). The fire department often responds in its own ambulances to these calls - it is thus normal to get 2 ambulances at a medical call. Furthermore, if multiple people are involved each ambulance can only take up to 2 people at a time. The number of ambulances is thus normally unrelated to the severity of the injury.